Wind Shadow (4 page)

Once the immediate threat of upending in broken glass was past, she felt fatigue grip her
again. Was she the
only
one in the pack who was on the verge of collapse? She slumped, crouching lower and watching Annie’s back wheel carefully. Wade’s pace was slower than normal, and she was grateful. At this point, it was the only thing that was keeping her going. How was Wade managing, bearing the brunt of this? He must be half-dead by now.

She flicked her eyes to her watch, sighing tiredly. It was only ten-thirty. There would be at least another hour before they stopped for lunch. Gritting her teeth with stubborn resolve and wincing at the sandy feeling in her mouth, she bent her head and pushed into the wind.

“
Damn it!
This is ridiculous!”

At first Silky was startled by the unexpected sound, wondering how her thoughts had taken a masculine voice. But then she became aware that Rex had pedaled up beside her. “Sil, I’m going on up ahead. Obviously Wade’s getting tired.” He began to pull on ahead as he finished, “At this rate, we’ll never make Fairbanks tonight.”

Before Silky could puff out her opinion that Wade’s “obviously tired” pace was about as grueling as she could stand, Rex was gone. She should have realized that she wasn’t in good enough condition to be on this trip! Just because she was dying, didn’t mean that everyone else was. If Rex had his way, it looked like it would get worse before it got better.

She was pulled sharply out of her morose
thoughts by Annie’s yell. “
Hey, Rex!
Get out of the road! Those truckers aren’t going to like you slowing them down!”

Rex ignored her words and pushed on up toward the front of the pack. Annie glanced over her shoulder, beyond Silky, who was now last in line. As Silky watched, Annie’s expression changed from irritated to horrified. An instant later, Silky knew why. She could hear a truck approaching loudly, its gears grinding in an effort to slow its massive forward movement.

“Oh hell!” Annie moaned.

Silky stiffened with alarm, choking out, “Annie, tell Rex!”

Annie jerked her head back to see Rex pedaling up the middle of the right lane. She screamed at the top of her lungs, “Rex, you idiot! Get out of the way!”

Silky paled, her palms going slick with sweat. “Please, Rex—please move!” She squeaked out the plea.

A blow, a physical concussion of sound, boomed into Silky’s ears. It happened again in several quick blasts as the furious trucker pounded on his mighty air horn.

“
God!
” Silky gasped, her heart in her throat. Thank heaven she was last in line. If anyone had been behind her, he would have rammed into her bike when her legs froze in panic. But her recovery was rapid enough to avoid either a bad spill or even a complete stop—and it was just in time for her to cower as the frustrated
trucker, unable to pass on the hill, down shifted again. Silky strained forward to look for Rex, and was relieved to see that he’d finally gotten out of the way.

Silky pulled over, having had just about enough emotional and physical trauma for the moment. Without thinking, she glanced up at the truck’s cab as it passed, and shuddered at the enraged face of the driver. He shook his fist at the bikers as his semi crawled past them up the long grade. Silky wasn’t sure that the man in the truck was pleased at missing Rex.

Annie hopped from her bike and waved broadly, shouting out a cheery, “Peace and love to you, too, brother!” Pulling off her safety helmet, she ran a shaky hand through damp curls. “Whew! I have a feeling that guy wasn’t inviting us to lunch.” She turned toward Silky as she put her helmet back on her head. “You okay, kiddo?”

Silky’s heart was thudding wildly and her legs were trembling with fatigue. “I—I thought Rex was …”—her lips trembled with the memory—“going to be killed!”

Annie flicked down her kickstand with an annoyed swing of her foot. “Should have been, the fool! When somebody pulls a stupid stunt like Rex did, it’s just like stealing to those drivers. They lose momentum, time and money. I don’t blame the guy for being mad.”

Silky bristled defensively. “Rex was just concerned about Wade being tired.”

“Well, he could have contained his concern for
two more minutes, Silky. He—” Annie stopped short, compressing her lips together in a thin line. Maybe Silky’s distress at having Rex criticized had showed in her expression. She didn’t know. But she was grateful that Annie had decided not to pursue the argument. Annie exhaled heavily. “I’ll shut up, Silky. No sense beating you to death with it.”

Both Silky and Annie turned to notice for the first time that their entire group had stopped. Many were taking advantage of the unexpected break with a cool squirt from their water bottles, some over their heads, some into their mouths. A drink seemed like an excellent idea to Silky. She pulled her bottle from its case and straightened. As she drank, she watched Wade walking his bike slowly along the edge of the gravel shoulder that bordered a field of erratically nodding wild flowers. He smiled when his eyes caught hers, and she found it hard to swallow her sip of water.

Annie called out to him. “Hi, chief. To what do we owe this honor?”

He pulled up beside her, answering, “Rex offered to spell me for a while.”

Annie’s laugh was derisive. “Oh? So that’s what he was doing. I thought he was trying out for the Olympic Stupidity team!”

Wade grinned. “Well—” He slid a quick, appraising glance toward Silky before continuing, “Whatever—I can sure use the break. That wind is fierce.”

Silky had tensed with Annie’s caustic remark. But Wade’s quiet, uncritical answer drained away her urge to pounce. Instead, she smiled and said, “Welcome to the caboose.” She started to pull her bike back a little to make room for him in front of her. “Here, you ride behind Annie.”

“No, thanks.” Wade had moved quickly, dropping a halting hand on her handlebar. “I’ll follow you.”

“But you’ll be eating everybody’s dirt,” she objected, without much basis in logic. After all, that’s just what she’d been doing. But, something in her was disturbed by the idea of having him watch her.

He flashed her an easy smile. “I can eat a little dirt—and a few words. If I dish it out, I guess I should be able to take it.”

Silky’s mouth dropped open. He wasn’t talking about dirt, or even riding, anymore. He was actually apologizing! She stared wordlessly at him. It was really quite ironic, somehow. Here she was, waiting with bated breath for some show of apology from Rex, and out of the blue, she got one from Wade—and for something so much less important!

She felt his hand touch hers before it closed around her wrist. “Look, Silky, about the other night—” Lowering his head so that Annie couldn’t hear, he murmured, “I’m really sorry.” She was caught by the earnest expression on his face and felt the circle of warm strength his
fingers made about her arm as he added, almost too softly for her to hear, “You were right. It wasn’t—isn’t my business.”

She swallowed, her green eyes lost somewhere deep in the black endlessness of his. For what seemed like a long time, she could only study his face, unable to form an answer. At last, she found herself nodding. “Forget it, Wade.” It came out in a whisper. “Let’s just forget it.”

A slight smile touched his lips, but before he could respond, Annie spoke. “Uh, oh.”

They turned toward her as she inclined her head to indicate something going on ahead. “It looks like we’re being signaled to start.”

Silky groaned, her mind lurching back to reality. “Already?” She suggested wearily, “Look, you all go on. I’ve just got to rest a while, but I promise I’ll be along shortly.” That was a lie. She didn’t know if she’d ever be “along” again. Her legs quivered with overexertion. All her muscles wanted was an immediate release from the responsibility of supporting her, of propelling her forward—for a good, long while.

Annie frowned. “Honey, we can’t just leave—”

Wade touched Annie’s arm, halting her objection. “I’ll stay with her. You, my expert, can bring up the rear for a while.”

Annie’s lips curled into a satisfied smirk as she squinted up at him. “Now there’s an idea. Why didn’t I think of it!”

Leonard’s tenor voice interrupted them as he
called back over his shoulder, “Hey, Toone, you ready?”

Annie crinkled her freckled nose in distaste and shot back a pithy rebuff, “Not for you, little man!” She waved him off with a quick flick of her hand. “Get along, you librarian.”

Leonard’s high-pitched laugh was quick and real as Annie swung onto her bike and was off, inches behind the chuckling man’s narrow rear wheel.

“Oh,
no!
” Silky sputtered, pulling her arm from his light hold. “Wade, please. You go on. I’ll be all right. I—I just need a few minutes to get my—uh—”

He was shaking his head in a way that made Silky very sure that her protests were falling on deaf ears. He took her water bottle and bent to snap it back into its holder. “There’s this rule, Silky, that says a pack leader can’t leave tired bikers alone on wilderness highways. After a while it tends to clutter the natural setting.” Straightening, he cocked his head toward the flower-filled meadow. “Let’s move away from the road. There’s a nice crop of willows over there.”

She watched the others disappear over the hill and wondered at the panic she felt. “On second thought, Wade, I think I’m ready to go on.”

He had turned away toward the field, but at her objection he turned back, peering narrowly down at her. Shaking his head, he said, “Look, Silky. I thought I’d apologized for the other
night. If I promise to be on my best behavior, will you rest for five minutes?”

A furious flush of embarrassment rushed up her neck, pinkening her face. “Oh—don’t be silly, Wade.” Her voice sounded oddly shrill. What was wrong with her? Certainly she knew Wade would be nothing less than a gentleman. What exactly was her problem? She had forgiven him, but for some reason she wasn’t ready to spend time alone with him—not yet. “Wade, I—I hate to be—uh, responsible for taking you away from the pack. Honestly, I’m fine.” She worked hard to make her smile look bright and energetic.

When he didn’t answer right away, she reluctantly lifted her eyes to meet his. He was watching her intently, and she thought she saw something like laughter quirk one corner of his mouth. He challenged casually, “I dare you to look me straight in the chin and say that.” His shrug was unconcerned. “Besides, the only person responsible for what I do is me.” He touched her hand as it lay draped loosely on a curving handlegrip. “Come on.”

Without waiting for her to reply, he turned away, his wide shoulders swinging around with a confident grace. He seemed to know she wouldn’t make any further objections. She knew it too. She was very tired, and she wasn’t stupid enough to stand there and deny that fact any longer. She pushed her bike into the tall grass, following him toward a small stand of swaying willows some distance from the highway.

After taking a seat in the shade, she busied nervous fingers smoothing her pink tank top down over matching shorts. Trying to appear calm, she leaned against a tree trunk and wondered vaguely why she had to
try
to appear calm! They were just sitting—just resting.

“Look at that mountain.”

She jumped at the sound of his voice.

He turned toward her, heedless of her unease as he went on, “With the sun reflecting off the glaciers, it’s beautiful.”

In a conscious effort to relax, she stretched her legs out before her and looked up at the glistening peak. “Uh huh.” He was right. It was beautiful, but she just wasn’t in the proper mood for appreciating nature’s wonders just now. Wade’s presence beside her was making her terribly uneasy. She cast a surreptitious glance toward him through lowered lashes.

His mouth was slanted in a crooked smile as he questioned, “Uh huh? Is that all you can say?” As he talked, he pulled his knee up, draping an arm around it. In an odd fascination, she watched his muscular calf flex with the movement. She liked the yellow gold shorts and shirt he was wearing. Their bright color contrasted nicely with his deep tan. Without much thought about their fledgling conversation, her mind more on the man than on her words, she asked, “What did you expect me to say?”

He moved his shoulders. “I don’t know.” Lifting those dark, beautifully fringed eyes back up toward the Denali peak, glistening in the late-morning
sun, he improvised. “Something like, ‘Its quiet wonder empties me of everyday cares.’” He swept an arm in a broad arc toward the mountain. “Or maybe, ‘The sight of it leaves the mind receptive to the miracle of its timeless world.’” He sat back, shifting his body slightly so that he could better look down at her. Smiling ruefully, he challenged softly, “There. Now, don’t you think that would have been better than ‘uh huh’?”

Surprised by his unexpected eloquence, she forgot her earlier nervousness and shook her head, laughing. “That’s awfully poetic talk for a
cop
, Wade.” She lifted a skeptical chin. “Where did you read it—
National Geographic
magazine?”

For a split second, he looked like someone had thrown ice water in his face—or did he? The impression of hurt passed so quickly that she couldn’t be positive she’d seen it at all.

He watched her quietly for a moment through slightly narrowed eyes. Then, exhaling wearily, almost regretfully, he rubbed a fist across his chin. In the quiet gap between gusts of wind, she could hear the sound of his knuckles grazing the beginnings of a new day’s growth of beard. As she watched, he lifted a dark brow at her. “Did I promise to be on my best behavior if you promised to rest five minutes?”

She was taken somewhat off-guard by the question. “Uh—” Lifting a shoulder, she gave an unsure answering smile. “Yes, I guess.”

He nodded. Silky noticed that his jaw had
begun flexing in irritation. “Would you say it’s been five minutes yet?”

“Well—” What did he want her to say? “Not quite.”

He shifted his eyes away and stood up, brushing grass from his shorts. The abruptness of his movement startled her. “Mind if we call it five?” he began crisply. “Maybe we’d better get going before I say something I regret.” Reaching down, he took her arm and pulled her to her feet.